Phoenyx's Final 10 & Journey to Fitness

Dammit!!! Hit with another urinary tract infection. This is the 2nd one this month!!:banghead: Up until now I've never had one... now two in one month? They put me on some heavy duty antibiotics this time... a kind that I can't have any dairy or calcium 2 hours before or after taking. And I need to avoid prolonged exposure to the sun for the next few days. Great, like I'm not close enough to being a vampire. Ah well, my pasty and pale self will just have to stick to the shadows even more. :cool:

The true bummer is I've felt like crap since it hit me this morning, and bad enough to miss my cardio class tonight. Hopefullly I'll feel good enough tomorrow to double up on my workout. Belly Dance first thing in the morning, weights when I get home from work. That's the plan, hope I can go through with it.

I'm finding myself wishing for a 27/28 inch waist again. That would mean a 3-4 inch loss around the middle. I wonder, what does that equate in pounds or body fat? And would that be taking it too far?
 
I think go look at the minimum weight for height and just make sure you're never lower...

Awww, UTIs are hell! I feel for you! :(

Feel better soon (and get that dancing in tomorrow morning! :) )
 
I’m an awful friend. I only just now found your diary.

Owie on the UTI! Have you and the Hub been more than usually frisky lately? That’s about the only time I get them. I’ve had about four in my lifetime, usually after being a little um . . . sparky, hee hee. The gyno will usually prescribe something without going in, they are so common among wimmens (lucky us.) The last time I had a UTI, about two years ago, I was on a trip from Montgomery, an hour and a half from work, and I had to stop every ten minutes! Finally I found a Walmart that had those little brown pills, which halted the symptoms long enough to get a real scrip! Pure misery.

I laughed my ass off on the keg over a six pack comment. Me, I just tell folks I am expecting my baby, Taco, any day now. Lol. It’s so depressing. In the past when I would gain I’d just get a badonka butt, very little gain in my waist, so I could somewhat hide my porkiness. But in the last few years, with this sedentary more stressful job, the weight has concentrated into the most poochiest of tummies. Nothing really looks right on me anymore. I am lucky to be my age else someone would probably think I am preggers! It would be so lovely to put these sun dresses back on next summer and not look expectant. Sigh.

Phoenyx you put the Ah in Ah-Mazing with your dedication to working out! Wish I could get the fever like you have. It’s neat that Ankebuzz loves belly dancing too. Peaks my interest, especially since I plan to meet the man of my dreams by Christmas, hee hee. How’s that for positive thinking?

You are doing so great! I wouldn’t worry about the wobbly bits. Honestly if I lost as much weight as you, I would be so ecstatic at how I looked IN clothes I wouldn’t worry about nekkid. If my lover can’t deal with wobbly then he can just go grow a few inches and let me know how that goes, hee hee.

Love ya, girl!

Colleen
 
Hehehehe, Colleen, you're funny!

Ye, I'm really into my yoga and belly dancing now... they complement eachother well. I've found my grace has increased with the dancing, teehee... it's awesome!
 
They certainly do. There's a lot of yoga and pilates type stretching in the warmups on a couple of my DVDs.

Got the morning workout in yesterday, but felt so awful from the drugs for the UTI that I didn't get the evening one in. That, and they put me on Cipro... which one of the warnings is you could potentially blow out a tendon if you're not careful. I'm having bad reactions to it, going in to the doc pretty soon to see what's up.

But for good news... I went in this morning for my weekly weigh in and lost another 2.2 pounds! Yeah!!!!
 
I did get a printout this morning when I went in for the weekly weigh in. If you go to the 4th post on this thread, the progression post, I've added to the list.

Lost 5 pounds last month. That's pretty low compared to previous months. At least the scale continues to go in the right direction. I need to seriously think about at least hitting a 2nd hand clothing store for a couple pairs of jeans, at least until I can get into the size I want to be at. My size small BDUs are starting to fit kinda loose in the legs and butt area... will I have to go to extra small? Oh darn. :willy_nilly:

Got to the doctor this morning... so I am no longer taking the Cipro. That's some nasty shit. I told the doc that if I ever get exposed to Anthrax, I'll take it, but beyond that... no fucking way. He wrote me a 'scrip for a different antibiotic, but we both decided to wait until the urinalysis comes back to see if I really need to take it or not. I am really hoping for 'not'.

Now I need to go get my butt to the chiropractor and have him put my head back on correctly. Owie. :ack2:
 
I have been a bit absent from the board in the past week-- I had a wedding to sing at and that consumed a lot of my free time. I would like to revisit your post concerning breast size. I went from one extreme to the other. I was probably a 40 D or DD at my heaviest. I crept down to a 32 A at one point, but am now back up to a B cup presumably from muscle. I did not like my largest breast size, nor do I care for my current one. It's an awkward size that isn't too common. And when I do find my size, there aren't too many cute bras in it.

I completely agree with LuckyColleen's comment about the wobbly bits. She has my exact attitude. If a boy ever degrades me for my small breasts or saggy skin, and in my eyes they will be a boy because a man knows how to appreciate a true woman's natural body, he can look elsewhere. If he can't magically come up with a few extra inches why should I have to change my body?
 
Lol Wordslinger. I would love to be a 32 or 34 B again. It's gonna happen. Just a month or so. My 38C I have to put in the smallest hook and I can poke it in like an egg crate, so I know my bra/cup size is shrinking. But in summer I'd prefer them big. But I know what you mean. When I am in a 34B it is very hard to fit in clothes because my hips will never be teeny. They just won't. I will never get below a Juniors 9 in the day to day. I've done it and I looked emaciated. Jeans and skirts and loose dresses are fine, but clingy stuff? Eeesh, if it fits my hips it falls off my shoulders and bust. So frustrating. I really love Newport News because there are so many two piece items, and I can tell to the inch if they will fit, since I have ordered from them for so long.

But I'll take the small boobs any day cause the smaller tummy will come with. I just have to stick with this. Sigh.
 
wordslinger said:
I completely agree with LuckyColleen's comment about the wobbly bits. She has my exact attitude. If a boy ever degrades me for my small breasts or saggy skin, and in my eyes they will be a boy because a man knows how to appreciate a true woman's natural body, he can look elsewhere. If he can't magically come up with a few extra inches why should I have to change my body?
Click to expand...

Heh... all they have to do is answer one of those spam emails about how they can miraculously grow an extra 3 inches... :smilielol5:

I'm not worried about my husband degrading me on how I look nekkid. He's been supportive of this whole process, and has been accepting of me regardless of shape. I'm harder on myself than anybody else.

I'm not doing this for anybody more than myself. Where I'm saying I want to look good for him... that's all me.

I'm just barely still fitting the 40Ds, on the very last hook, and the cups are starting to get loose. So I'm guessing at this point I'd probably be a 38C. I can live with that. I'll get myself fitted by a pro when I'm ready to shop for undies.

Starting to feel human again after taking those awful drugs. Did some of the DVD workout on Saturday, and basically laid low on Sunday.

Back to my martial arts class last night. I'm getting better with my kicks...my increased flexibility has allowed me to kick higher, and my accuracy is getting better. I really want one of those 'heavy bags' that is a human torso and head on a stand. That way when somebody pisses me off at work I can come home and kick the crap out of it.

Had a touch of insomnia last night so I was way too wiped out this morning to do anything. Better do some weights tonight.
 
Some musings on 'knowing' vs 'WANTING'

As I've been reading through this forum, talking to one of my friends who is very overweight, and looking back on my previous attempts to lose weight, I have learned something very valuable.

To lose weight, you have to WANT it like you've never wanted anything else.

I'm serious. I can't count how many times I've paid lip service to the "oh, I'm so miserable looking like this and being this heavy. I need to lose weight, I need to start exercising, I need to start eating right... blah blah blah", or some variation thereof.

Knowing you need to do something, and WANTING to do it are two completely different animals. If you go into a new weight loss program with just the 'knowing you need to do it' attitude, you are going to do it half-assed. Oh, you may go in to it gangbusters at first, be really good about exercising, eating right, etc. and you may start to lose weight. That is, until you hit that first speed bump... be it getting sick, going on vacation, going to a party... anything that distracts you from what you are doing. Then you justify eating crap, not exercising by saying "oh, I'll get back to it tomorrow, one more piece of cake isn't going to hurt me... etc." until you've 'one more piece of cake'd' yourself back to the weight you started at, or heavier.

Yes, I fell in to that trap many times.

This time, I WANTED it. And it has been borderline obsession. Not the 'become a bulemic or anorexic' type of obsession... but the obsession to do it right, and work on changing my eating habits, get serious about exercising... that type of obsession.

I know I'm not out of danger though... I know how easily I could slip back in to the old patterns of eating too much crap and not exercising. I know how easily I could go back to looking like I did back in January. And it scares the shit out of me.

Here's a good illustration of "knowing" versus "WANTING"

I have this friend, TIna*. I've known Tina for the past 6 years, and along the way she met my husband's best friend, and they got married a couple years ago. Since they had gotten together, Tina's weight had been slowly creeping up on her. Last year she got pregnant, and had a baby in October. That put on a lot more weight.

My sister-in-law Joanie* (married to my husband's brother) also had a baby in November. She too put on a lot of 'baby weight'. For Joanie this is baby #2, and she slimmed down really good after baby #1. She put on a little more weight with this one.

Tina, Joanie and I are all pretty good friends.

Joanie is a great example of "WANTING" to lose weight. She's been working on getting the baby weight off since about the time I started, maybe a little before, and she's taken off about 70 pounds. Like me, she's down to those final few. Its been great because we've been support for each other through this, celebrating the triumphs, having somebody who understands to bitch to when the plateaus hit... that type of thing.

Tina "knows" she needs to lose weight, even wants to. Definitely not happy with carting around the extra 85 pounds she's gained. (Can't blame her there, I know how she feels). Also suffering Plantar faciitis, which I know is extremely painful, but I also know that one thing that can cause it is being over weight.

But, she's not to the point yet where she has hit that level of "WANT". This was clearly illustrated the other day when she was asking Joanie and I for advice on losing weight, and finding reasons why what we suggested wouldn't work. She's sabotaging herself before she even tries. She's using her husband and the baby as excuses. That's no excuse. She and Joanie are both stay at home moms, with a young baby, and Joanie also has an active 4 year old. Yet Joanie has found a way to work around the distractions of children and husband... because she WANTS it.

I really hope Tina hits that level of "WANT" soon... I WANT my friend to be happy with herself again, healthy, have energy, and be free from the pain. She's gonna need that extra energy once the kiddo starts walking.


* names changed
 
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Thank you for the insightful post. I think that I am sleeping into the "knowing" as I ease into the final ten pounds. I'm still stuck at 115, I've been there for maybe four months. I know I need to exercise, so I do it every day. I know I need to eat healthier. I need to sit myself down and hash out what exactly I want so I can alter my current plans to achieve it. I think my problem is that it's not simply about losing weight anymore, it's more toning up and putting on lean muscle. I'm still stuck with the scale mentality.
 
Yeah, I find that that the WANTING is easy to lose though. I recently found it again, and it makes all the difference!
 
I'm bloody exhausted

Went in for my weekly weigh-in this morning. Another 1.5 pounds gone! Yep, I'm at 172 exactly. I have 7 pounds to go! WOOHOOOO!!! Now originally I was going to go to 170, so if I still were I'd be 2 pounds to go. But I decided on the 5 pound buffer while I'm going into the maintenance phase and focusing on taking off more body fat, toning up more & building more muscle.

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I really need to focus on getting more sleep during the week. I've just been so stressed out at work lately its kicking me into insomnia, so I end up not getting enough sleep. Its like I end up pacing for a couple hours instead of going to bed. Or I'll stand in the middle of the room and stare off into space for periods of time. Combination of not enough sleep and crazy stress at work... I have virtually no fuse right now. My coworker, the IT guy, was talking to one of the managers on his speaker phone, I found her stubborn stupidity so irritating I wanted to go upstairs and stab her in the head with a pencil. Normally I can just ignore her or grumble a little... but there's times she brings out my inner homicidal maniac. :banghead:

Ah well, thank GAWD it is Friday. I think I'm gonna say calories be damned and tie one on tonight. I do believe my good buddy Jack is gonna have to come visit.

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I've really been noticing how much stronger I've gotten. My leg muscles are pretty much rock solid, but the strength in them was really brought home to me this morning while I was working out. Guess all those lunges are starting to pay off. I'm getting to where I can kick a lot higher in my martial arts class too. Finally getting more accuracy with my roundhouse. I'm pretty jazzed about the Indonesian Silat workshop in a few weeks. My arms are looking pretty good these days too. Getting definition in my delts and biceps... and I think I saw a hint of tricep the other day. I need to build my upper pecs a little more though... I can see ribs.

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I'm gonna have to grab some of the text I've written in other posts concerning nutrition and put it here... I think its worth keeping.

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Alright, back to work! :smash:
 
Observations on food

This is going to be an ongoing post... I'll continue to add to it at my whim. :willy_nilly:

(and this is all observation, opinion and personal truth... I'm hardly an authority on this)

So I'd say the bulk of us (bad pun, sorry :biggrinjester: ) are here because we didn't eat right, ate too much, etc.

So while I've been on this weight loss/lifestyle change journey, I've learned quite a bit. Enough to make me interested in studying nutrition. For now that is limited to what I can read, but I'm hoping to take some classes eventually. I'm also a lot more interested in cooking. Kind of a necessity since I need to make sure I can eat something that doesn't taste like cardboard sauteed in vaseline.

I picked up a cook book recently called "Every Calorie Counts" by Dana Carpender. She is also the author of "500 Low Carb Recipes" and several others. I have both of those books and so far what I've cooked out of both have been pretty tasty, or easy enough to tweak to my liking. The Low Carb book is a tad too fatty and caloric for the way I eat now, but I've been modifying what looks good to something more geared toward how I eat now.

What's very valuable about these books is the first section where she talks a lot about different foods & nutrition. And the Glycemic Index.

Carbs & The Glycemic Index

You can find good explanations of the Glycemic Index by searching on this site, or by Googling it, but in a nutshell, the Glycemic Index, or GI, is basically a measure of how carbohydrates affect your blood sugar levels. If the foods break down slowly, gradually releasing the carbs into your blood stream, it has a low GI. Foods that break down quickly and release the carbs rapidly have a high GI.

Ever wonder why you might feel a little tired or loopy after eating Chinese Food... especially things like fried rice, sweet & sour pork, etc.? Because it is laden with sugar, full of white rice, and if its battered & fried... refined flour. All of these are extremely high on the GI. You get that rush of sugars through your blood and it makes you go :willy_nilly: then you crash :svengo:. Then you're hungry again a very short while later.

Your body basically broke those high GI items down quickly, ran it through your blood sugar in a surge of energy, and since you probably couldn't use all that energy right then and there, stored what was left away as fat. Why fat? Because that is how your body stores energy to be used later.

Thanks to modern technology in food processing, many things are so processed they lose their nutritional value. Like white flour. Like white rice. Like instant oatmeal. Things that are fairly nutritious when in their whole state have their outer layer stripped off and discarded, and while this may make a tasty white bread, its also a sugar bomb.

So to help avoid the high GI with breads and grains if you just can't take them out of what you eat... stay far, FAR away from white bread, white rice (egads don't even think about instant rice!), instant oatmeal (has a bunch of sugar in it anyway), and in their stead, go for whole wheat, whole grain products. Go with rolled or steel cut oats. These will contain that outer layer of the grain that helps slow down the release of the sugars into the blood. And... it contains fiber. Fiber is good. Fiber helps clean out your insides, helps keep you regular!

Another thing that helps slow down the GI is fat. Little butter on your bread, or go Mediterranean style and dip it in a bit of olive oil. Drawback to that is the fat and caloric intake that goes with it.

more later...
 
Awesome post! Will be coming back to read updates :) I know some of this, and haven't heard of other stuff, sop thanks for the interesting read!

And well done on the 1.5 loss! :hurray:
 
Ankebuzz said:
Awesome post! Will be coming back to read updates :) I know some of this, and haven't heard of other stuff, sop thanks for the interesting read!

And well done on the 1.5 loss! :hurray:
Click to expand...

Thank you! I'm pretty happy because I'm .4 away from losing a true 70 pounds, and 7 pounds away from 'goal'. That's HUGE! I feel pretty accomplished on this. :party:

Wait until you read my diatribe on eggs and only eating egg whites. :coolgleamA:

So, Mr. Jack and I didn't tie one on nearly as bad as I had originally thought I would. Had a stressful evening because I drove all the way out to my chiropractor only to find they were closed. When I called and they didn't answer, I thought they were too busy because the voice mail message didn't say anything about them being out. Geez, one minute to change the message would have saved me time, gas, and the aggravation of being stuck on Hwy 4 during rush hour.

I got so pissed at being stuck in traffic (this was the topper to a stressful week) that I took a detour off another freeway and stopped at the mall. There's a gathering of car folk every Friday evening, so I stopped for a while and de-stressed by taking pictures of some lovely hot rods, muscle cars, and classics. And talked to some pretty cool people. I'm heading to another car show in a bit.

"D" (my husband and I) got together with a friend of ours for dinner last night. Went to a Mexican restaurant. I've figured out how to eat at a Mexican restaurant without totally blowing it. I had a few chips with the salsa, but instead of anything involving shells or tortillas, I ordered the fajitas, but didn't use the tortillas. Ate the meat, the onions, some of the beans, a couple bites of the rice, and of course the guacomole. Didn't feel like a total slug afterwards.

Then I came home and had some Gentleman Jack on the rocks. Probably a couple shots worth, but not nearly the amount I wanted earlier. That's ok, less damage control to do afterwards. :biggrinjester:

Did a longer workout this morning with the Belly Dance DVDs. I was doing just fine until I was stretching afterwards and strained something in my lower back. I'm trying to breathe through it right now, but OUCH!!! :banghead:

Lately I've started to drink a glass of 2% milk right after working out. Seems to be helping with the deterring of muscle cramps. That is, when I don't do something stupid and pull a muscle.

I hope it passes... I plan on working with the weights tomorrow.

Ok, need to get some food in me and get to the car show. Hot Rods WOOOHOOOOO!!! :party:
 
HOLY CRAP!! A size 10!!!!!

Excuse me a minute... :willy_nilly:

Had to stop at Work World today to get a new pair of Carhartt's to wear at my welding classes. All my fat pants are WAY too big now. Considering I was wearing men's pants, and my old Carhartt's were 42s... yeah, they were a 'tad' too large.

Decided 'what the heck?'... looked at the Carhartt's for Women pants. Grabbed 3 pairs... a 14, a 12 and a 10.

Tried on the 14s... they were freaking HUGE! Almost to the point where I could pull them off without unbuttoning them.

Tried on the 12s... they fit a little better, but still pretty baggy. They'd be on the 'too huge' train before long.

Tried on the 10s... a little snug... BUT THEY FIT! And they'll fit even better 5 pounds from now.

I'm just ecstatic right now... I haven't gotten my ass into a size 10 in YEARS!!! I know there will still be brands where I'll be a 12 right now... but hell, I was wearing 18/20s and even 22s before. A 12 isn't going to faze me right now.

I wonder if I should go for size 8, or would that be too much? Meh, I don't know. I do know that I want to start getting off the phentermine at the beginning of September. I'd like to get it out of my system and hopefully be able to continue the way I have.

So I went to that car show today. Saw some friends that I haven't seen in a few months. Guess a couple of them noticed I'd slimmed down a bit because the sentence 'holy crap, girl... you're wasting away!' escaped his lips. Man... that felt good! And another had asked what I had been doing. Always nice when your hard work is noticed. Makes it even more worth it.
 
Awesome! You deserve to feel absolutely proud and good about yourself! Enjoy the clothes, the compliments, and yourself!
 
Sunday was an odd mix of cool and frustrating.

My workout was with weights in the morning. Trying to keep consistent about at least twice a week with weights. *Mantra* Pecs and glutes... gotta build up those pecs and glutes!

We decided to go to Target to grab a few things, and I figured that would be a good place to look at some inexpensive jeans, and pick up some new work out leggings because my XLs are baggy and uncomfortable. They had virtually NO jeans in the 'women's' sizes... you know, the even sizes. Odd sizes are Jrs... hence no room for curves. Pleny of Juniors, plus sizes and maternity... but no 'normal' sized women's jeans. Their selection of workout wear was rather sucky too. The leggings I tried on fit really weird. Only cool thing about that episode was that the larges were too big, and the mediums fit, even if they looked bad. Yes, I care what my workout gear looks like, so shoot me. :smash:

Stopped by a sporting goods place and picked up some more weights too. My dumbells went up to 5lbs, so I grabbed a pair of 8s and 10s. I'll work my way to where those are light and get some 12s and 15s. I used to curl with 20s a long time ago... don't know if I'll get there again or not.

I'm feeling that muscle soreness... and that's a good thing. Looking forward to the martial arts class tonight.
 
Awesome class tonight. I think most of the others are involved in watching the Olympics so it was a small class. I'm the only female that showed up, so I got to spar with one of the guys again. I love that. Sparring really gives you a good arm & upper body workout. We punch the target mitts, so when you are the one holding the mitts, you have to resist the punches your sparring partner lays into them. When I spar with one of the guys, the don't tap the mitts, they hit 'em. Most likely not full force, but they give enough oomph behind them to feel it in my arms. I can punch the mitts a bit harder with them too. I need to keep getting better so I can spar with the guys more often. I learn more that way.

Unfortunately tonight was the end of this session, and there's not going to be another one until the beginning of next month. Fortunately for the next couple weeks my instructor is teaching a martial arts conditioning type of class, and it sounds like its a pretty intense workout too. I'll be signing up for that.

I'm doing a lot of traveling in September. Right after Labor Day I'm heading to Las Vegas for the Photoshop World conference, and towards the end of September I'm heading to Kansas for a week. Gonna go experience the race weekend out there (yes, NASCAR!), and then hang out for a few days, explore, that type of thing. Never been there, it should be fun.

One challenge for both of these trips is going to be finding ways and time to work out. I think the Luxor has a gym, I hope I can hit it a couple times. I'll also be packing my iPod and resistance bands, do what I can in my room as well. Plus I'll be walking a lot. In Kansas, I'm staying in Lawrence during the race weekend, and I've found a gym about a 1/2 mile from the hotel I'm staying at (no exercise room there). I need to see if they have day passes, and how much they are. I can at least hit the gym on Friday since we'll be at the track Saturday and Sunday... and walking a lot. Still need to find a hotel in the town we're staying in after the race... hopefully one with an exercise room or near a gym.

Another challenge is going to be the food. Its going to be tricky to behave when I'm out there, especially since I'll be eating at restaurants most of the time. Our hotel in Lawrence will have a small fridge, so at least I can get some snack type things that won't wreck all the work I've done. Just gonna have to be as good as I can be, allow myself to misbehave a bit, and do the damage control when I get back.
 
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